This invention relates to a disposable gown, for example, outerwear for surgical operations, outerwear for patients, sleepwear of patients.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 1994-207301A describes a disposable gown comprising a basic trunk portion of which a rear trunk region is divided into right and left halves, and both sleeves attached to the both sides of the upper end of the basic trunk portion which is provided with a first and second tying cords for fastening the basic trunk portion to the wearer""s body from its outside.
According to the gown of prior art, fastener members which can be engaged each other are attached to a neckline of each rear trunk half. When the gown is worn, a wearer places the rear trunk halves upon each other so that the rear portion is closed, ties the waist portion by fastening the first and second tying cords together, and closes the collar by engaging fastener members with each other. If no enough area exists between the neckline of the basic trunk portion and the wearer""s neck, although it depends on the size of wearer""s neck, tension from the sleeves is transmitted to the upper side of each rear trunk halves. Consequently, the wearer experiences uncomfortable compressive feeling in the vicinity of the wearer""s neck and smooth movement of the neck might be restrained by the trunk portion.
In view of the problem as has been described above, it is an object of this invention to provide a disposable gown improved so that, even if the wearer stretches his or her arms forward or bends his or her elbows, no high pressure of the wear is exerted on the wearer""s neck and movement of wearer""s neck may be free from restriction by the trunk portion.
According to this invention, there is provided an improvement in the disposable gown comprising a basic trunk portion which has a front trunk region covering the breast and belly of a wearer and a rear trunk region covering the back of the wearer, and both sleeves attached to both sides of an upper end of the basic trunk portion, with a neck opening in the upper end and a hem opening in a lower end of the basic trunk portion, wherein the rear trunk region comprises a first rear trunk half contiguous to one side edge of the front trunk region and a second rear trunk half contiguous to the other side edge of the front trunk region.
The improvement according to this invention is in that a collar element by means of which the first rear trunk half and the second rear trunk half may be kept closed extends along the edge of the neck opening in its circumferencial direction, the collar element being formed from a front collar member attached to the front trunk region and surrounding substantially front half of the neck opening, a first rear collar member attached to the first rear trunk half and extending toward the second rear trunk half so as to surround substantially rear half of the neck opening, and a second rear collar member attached to the second rear trunk half and extending toward the first rear trunk half so as to surround substantially rear half of the neck opening, a first pair of engaging means being formed on respective ends of the front collar member and the first rear collar member faced the second rear collar member, the first pair of engaging means detachably fastening the collar members to each other, a second pair of engaging means being formed on respective ends of the front collar member and the second rear collar member faced the first rear collar member so that the second pair of engaging means may detachably fasten the collar members to each other.
According to one preferred embodiment of this invention, the basic trunk portion and each of the sleeves are formed with a hydrophobic nonwoven fabric or a laminated sheet of hydrophobic nonwoven fabric and a flexible thermoplastic synthetic resin sheet, and the collar element is formed with a hydrophilic nonwoven fabric.